Leveraging Business Skills in Counseling the Recovering Addict

Eric A. Kreuter, PhD, CPA, CGMA, CFE, CASAC-T

Accountants can deploy their technical training, skills, and experience in helping powerless persons as a way of giving back to the community. This article describes how I found a path to helping people recover from addiction to alcohol and other drugs. One need only reflect on the high death rate due to the opioid crisis and the dangerous proliferation of fentanyl in the United States to see why more must be done. Rather than stigmatize the addict, I believe we should see chemical addiction as a disease and help those who are affected by it find sustainable ways of overcoming its grip. After years of doing close work in addiction, I have changed my own stereotypical view of addicts; I now see them as valuable people who can transform themselves to resume progress towards leading healthy, happy, and purposeful lives.